Maranda Russell's Blog, page 46
February 26, 2019
Twittering Tales #125 – Empty Bed
Here is the photo prompt and my entry for this week’s Twittering Tales writing challenge hosted by Kat Myrman:
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Olivia sat on the edge of her daughter’s unmade bed. She ran her fingers over the ridges and bulges of the white blankets. She leaned down to sniff the fluffy pillow at the head of the bed, then laid her head down on it heavily.
She’s really gone. The pain hit hard and fast.
(275 characters)
(Note: The photo prompt this week really reminded me of the novel I am currently reading, “The Night Olivia Fell”, by Christina McDonald. So, I stole the character name for the writing exercise.)
February 25, 2019
More Elfchen Poems – Suicide, Trump, Potemkin
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Here are a few more Elfchen poems (5 line poems that have the following number of words per line: Line 1 = 1 word, 2 = 2 words, 3 = 3 words, 4 = 4 words, 5 = 1 word, the words on line 1 and line 5 should not be the same word).
1.
Suicide
time to
open those cuts
and suction the blood
flowing
2.
Pity,
you believe
the orange gremlin
in the white house?
Sucker.
3.
Potemkin
funny name
on the cover
of a paperback novel
misread
(My apologies to any Trump supporters for #2 lol, as you can tell, I am not a supporter)
(For #3 I just had to write something because I love the name Potemkin)
February 24, 2019
Abstract ACEO Artworks – Oil Pastel & Markers
Lately I’ve been in an abstract art frame of mind. I created the following ACEO artist trading cards with a mixture of textured papers and either oil pastel or art markers. I hope you like them!
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If you would like to buy one of these artworks or want to see what others I currently have for sale, visit my Ebay store!
February 22, 2019
Twittering Tales #124 – Route 66
It took me a couple days to come up with something this week for the Twittering Tales hosted by Kat Myrman, but I finally have something. As I explained before, this writing challenge is to simply write a short story, or poem, or whatever you want as long as it is under 280 characters (the length of a tweet).
Here is this week’s picture prompt and my entry for this week below (photo from Pixabay):
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“Route 66? I remember that road.”
“Great, thanks for the reminiscing, but that doesn’t tell us how to get there.”
“That is a road you only find by following your heart, not a map.”
“Thanks Big Bird, but we aren’t exactly looking for Sesame Street!”
“Shame..I could get you there too.”
February 21, 2019
SSDI Hearing Update
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Sorry I didn’t update you all yesterday after the hearing, but I was just too exhausted mentally, emotionally, and physically after the stress of the day. Overall, I think the hearing went ok. It didn’t start out very well since my husband and I had trouble locating the right building and ended up walking through the thick, slushy snow so far that I had an asthma attack, started crying, and was totally soaked from the knees down by the time we actually found the right building. The roads were bad too from the snowstorm and parking was almost impossible since none of the parking lots had been cleared yet.
Once we got into the building, I had a few minutes to recover from the asthma attack and calm down at least. I also had about 15 minutes to meet with my lawyer before the hearing to go over everything again. During the hearing itself, I was quite nervous. I was doing a lot of rocking back and forth (“stimming” in autistic terms).
I think I only had the nerve to look at the judge two or three times the entire hour I was in there. I mostly stared at the microphone and tried to block out everyone else there while answering questions. That seemed to help my social anxiety. I think I did a decent job answering the judges questions…and she asked a lot. I never lost control of myself, although in my closing remarks I did tear up a bit and got a little emotional talking about how hard it had become for me to keep a job due to my physical and mental disabilities.
Unfortunately, the judge did not tell me her decision yesterday. I will have to wait to receive the official verdict letter. On the positive side, my attorney did say afterwards that he thought it went great and even on the off chance that the judge gave a negative verdict, he thought I had a strong enough case that he would appeal that. I hope it doesn’t come to that though, God only knows how much longer that would make the whole thing drag out…and quite honestly, we need the money as soon as possible, especially since I just got a $1,500 ER bill (our deductible sucks).
February 19, 2019
Worries about My SSDI Hearing Tomorrow
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Tomorrow morning is my SSDI hearing. I’m super anxious about it. I feel a little nauseated just thinking about it. I’m afraid I’ll do or say the wrong thing. I’m afraid I’ll burst into tears and feel embarrassed. I’m afraid I’ll somehow misrepresent my reality. I’m afraid the judge will say no and ruin my foreseeable future.
I know the judge probably won’t even give a straight “yes” or “no” answer tomorrow, but that makes it even worse because then I have to wait who-knows-how-long in suspense and worry. I hope I’ll feel better when it is over, but knowing me, I’ll probably spend the next few months picking apart the experience and everything I think I did wrong until I get an answer.
February 17, 2019
January/February Book Subscription Boxes – Kids & Middle Grade
Lately I’ve been trying random book subscription boxes just to try to figure out which one I want to get on a regular basis. For January/February, I tried the following two boxes:
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This first box was the January Book Drop subscription. I picked the middle grade option, although I was torn between that and the young adult option. This subscription box sends you one book per month (along with a card about the book and little extras like bookmarks) and is pretty cheap (about $10 including S&H for this shipment). The Book Drop is run by an independent bookstore, which makes buying it even better since I like to support small businesses.
The book they sent this month was Winterhouse by Ben Guterson. I really enjoyed this mystery novel! The main character is a book nerd and loves to do puzzles, just like me! I did figure out the plot of the book pretty early on though, so the mystery wasn’t all that hard for me.
Here is the second box I received, this one in early February:
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This box was from Kids Bookcase Club. It cost $9.99 plus S&H. You get three kids books a month. This was the 7-8 year old box. Out of the three books they sent, my favorite by far was Terrific by Jon Agee. This picture book is sarcastic and hilarious! I love the grumpy old man who is the main character! The Very Fairy Princess was a cute picture book, but not exactly my taste. The Animal Planet Dolphin Rescue book was a young reader chapter book and it was cute and interesting, but obviously a simple read. For next month’s box, I decided to up the age to the preteen box to see what kind of middle grade books they send.
For the upcoming month I am also trying out the Scribbler subscription box for writers and the SpearCraft Book Box (which comes with all kinds of cool reader goodies)! So stay tuned!!!
February 16, 2019
Micropoetry: 3 Elfchen Poems
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Recently I discovered Elfchen poems, which are 5-line poems that follow this pattern:
Line 1 – 1 word
Line 2 – 2 words
Line 3 – 3 words
Line 4 – 4 words
Line 5 – 1 word (different than the first line word)
It is also common to take the last word of someone else’s Elfchen poem to start off your own new one.
Here are several of my first tries with this poetic genre:
1.
Always
means never
when you live
in an unstable world,
alone.
2.
Stronger
and yet
weakness creeps in
settles on the edge,
waiting.
3.
Unsaid
the words
lie firmly under
your tongue in cheek,
bitter.
February 15, 2019
Valentine’s Day 2019 Gifts – Lots of Unicorns!
I had a good Valentine’s Day yesterday!
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My husband and I went to Fazoli’s for a casual dinner because we just don’t find it worth it to go to nice restaurants on Valentine’s Day when it is so ridiculously busy and packed. We will go to a nice dinner in a few days when it is calmer lol.
I loved all the gifts I got! As you can tell, there was a unicorn theme! Lots of stuffed unicorns, a unicorn & mermaid coloring book, adorable sloth and donut socks, chocolate covered strawberries, and and awesome gudetama notebook and bananya (cats in bananas) pen.
February 14, 2019
Valentine Sticker ACEO Trading Card Collages
Happy Valentine’s Day! I bought some Valentine stickers at Dollar Tree recently and decided to make some ACEO collages with them. Here are the finished results:
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My favorites are the food themed ones. I thought those were really unusual for Valentine’s themed stickers. I always like to find the weird, different stuff!
You can find these and more for sale on my Ebay store!
